Adult male actor/dancer required for artists’ film commission

Spike Film and Video are seeking an actor/dancer to feature in a new film by artist Patrick Staff exploring queer intergenerational relationships.

CASTING INFO:MALE LEAD: Adult white male aged between late 40s-60 years old. Average to larger build, and masculine. Primarily a physical role, with some dialogue. The actor will have a confident and nuanced approach to gesture and a subtle air of confidence and authority. Generic British or American accent. Dance experience preferable. Understanding of experimental theatre approaches would be useful. Tattoos, piercings or beard a bonus.

The character is a senior figure, perhaps a mentor, to the artist (who will play himself). Together they occupy an abstract set, re arranging furniture, watching tv and dancing together.

PROJECT DETAILS:The Foundation is a new film exploring queer intergenerational relationships negotiated through historical materials by London based artist Patrick Staff.

The film cites the Tom of Finland Foundation in Los Angeles as a living archive and home to the collection of work of the erotic artist and queer icon and a community of people that care for it. Observational footage shot at the Foundation is intercut with a series of choreographed performances between the artist and an actor within a stylized stage set. The film is motivated by an interest in the multiple and layered functions of the building – as archive, domestic space and an organisation with an active agenda – but also the role of the Foundation as a site of desire and sexuality.

The new commission will result in a large scale single screen video installation to be presented in major solo exhibitions in the UK and internationally through 2015-16.

Filming will take place in Bristol in mid September over 2 days with two days allocated for rehearsal, also taking place in Bristol.

Patrick Staff is an artist working with film and video, installation and performance. Selected exhibitions, performances and screenings include Art Turning Left: How Values Changed Making, Tate Liverpool; Communal Knowledge, The Showroom, London (both 2014); Mental Effort Before Action 1-5a-5b, South London Gallery, London; A Factory as it Might Be, International Project Space, Birmingham (both 2013); Chewing Gum for the Social Body, Tate Modern, London (2012); and Community Without Propinquity, MK Gallery, Milton Keynes (2011). He was a participant of the LUX Associate Artist Programme 2010 – 11 and was the inaugral LUX/White Building Collection Residency (2014) artist.

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